You Might Be a Libertarian

Or you might only think you are. Back in the 90s, one of my colleagues – a very likeable guy – described his libertarianism in a way that made it seem very reasonable. On the internet however, I run across self-described libertarians who sound more like conservatives that want to legalize pot. According to the Pew Research Center’s, In search of libertarians, there are a wide variety of folk who think they are libertarian, but probably couldn’t reconcile many of their beliefs with Ayn Rand:

The question of whether libertarianism is gaining public support has received increased attention, with talk of a Rand Paul run for president and a recent New York Times magazine story asking if the “Libertarian Moment” has finally arrived. But if it has, there are still many Americans who do not have a clear sense of what “libertarian” means, and our surveys find that, on many issues, the views among people who call themselves libertarian do not differ much from those of the overall public.

About one-in-ten Americans (11%) describe themselves as libertarian and know what the term means. …

… Self-described libertarians tend to be modestly more supportive of some libertarian positions, but few of them hold consistent libertarian opinions on the role of government, foreign policy and social issues.

There’s a quiz at the end which will assign you to an -ism. I got solid liberal.